Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire (SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE AND THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE 2019)

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE AND THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE 2019LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING

'My book of the year. It's personal, historical, political, and it speaks to where we are now. This is the book I've been waiting for - for years' Benjamin Zephaniah

'Powerful ... The kind of disruptive, aggressive intellect that a new generation is closely watching' Afua Hirsch, Observer

'Part biography, part polemic, this powerful, wide-ranging study picks apart the British myth of meritocracy' David Olusoga, Guardian

'Inspiring' Madani Younis, Guardian

'Lucid, wide-ranging' John Kerrigan, TLS

'A potent combination of autobiography and political history which holds up a mirror to contemporary Britain' Independent

A searing modern polemic and Sunday Times bestseller from the BAFTA and MOBO award-winning musician and political commentator, Akala.

From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers - race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.

Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right, Natives will speak directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain's racialised empire.

'Trenchant and highly persuasive' Metro

'A history lesson of the kind you should get in school but don't' Stylist

Part biography, part polemic, this powerful, wide-ranging study picks apart the British myth of meritocracy (Guardian)

Akala is at his best destroying the comfortable myths that are invoked by white fragility to downplay attempts to correct the historical record ... Akala makes it clear that he is not brimming with optimism. But reading Natives - witnessing the kind of disruptive, aggressive intellect that a new generation is closely watching - I can't help but be just that (Afua Hirsch Guardian)

A potent combination of autobiography and political history which holds up a mirror to contemporary Britain (Independent)

A history lesson of the kind you should get in school but don't ... This is a searing, thought-provoking book (Stylist)

A book bristling with intelligence and insight (Irish Times)

In personalised chapters covering the police, education and identity, politics, sexual objectification and the far right, he confronts the issues of race and class at the heart of the legacy of Britain's racialised empire in this fierce and articulate polemic. (The Bookseller)

An engaged and nuanced exploration of the complex interplay between race and class (Morning Star)